Poll: Voters Trust Republicans More on Immigration

10 Sep 2014

Registered voters are more likely to support Republican immigration plans over Democratic ones, representing a shift in support from last year, according to a new poll.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll released Tuesday found that 35 percent of registered voters think Republicans would do better with immigration, while 27 percent said Democrats would do a better job.

Compare this week’s numbers to December’s, when 31 percent said they favored Democrats on the issue and 26 percent said Republicans would do better.

The same poll also found a decline in the percentage of voters who favored a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. While April saw 64 percent in favor with 35 percent opposed, September’s poll found a massive drop in favorable opinion with 53 percent saying they support a pathway to citizenship and and 45 percent opposed.

The pollsters who conducted the survey pointed to the massive influx of unaccompanied minors illegally entering the United States in recent months as a large factor in the shift in opinion.

The Journal pointed out all demographics have shown a marked decline in support for a pathway to citizenship compared to before the surge in unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors became major news — including support among African Americans, which declined from 75 percent in the spring to 59 percent now, and those with “some college” declined form 65 percent supporting such a pathway to 42 percent support.

“I’m just not sure how much bounce back there will be with some of these groups,” Fred Yang, a Democratic pollster who helped conduct the poll, told the Journal.

The poll was conducted from Sept. 3-7 among 1,000 registered voters and has a margin of error of +/-3.1 percentage points.